The Spitfire Squadron ...question

[Pete Lewis]

John D you remember this crew with the team , I sent a message but no reply ,  however

back on the old forum this was a well followed team topic. 

 

I have a local member  Jim Fullbrook  who has  a  Red GT6 REG  KLR 312K   he has with the car some documents relating to this being used as pace car in the race series

 

its been off the road for some years 

 

so John  is this the car or a duff collection of history files 

 

any thoughts .

 

Pete

 

 

[Pete Lewis]

john   any clues on this ??

thanks  pete

[JohnD]

Pete,

I'm sorry, I cannot imagine why you haven't had a reply, as I remember the question!  And feel sure I did reply.

But Hey!  That's computers for you.

 

The Spitfire Squadron was a team name from the HeyDay of TSSC racing, when six race Spitfires could easily be gathered to enter the 750MC's Birkett Six Hour Relay Race.   In fact, in the 90s I organised a second team of Spitfires, "Team TSSC" - see pic below.   It was a wonderful event that got cars of every type on track at once, from 750 Series, Austin7 based specials to racing Bentleys from WO's own hands.    As there could be forty or more teams, each with a car on track at once, it was a whole day of continuous motorsport, that became a regular, end-of-season jolly for most of UK's racers.    And Triumphs played their part.

 

 

But Triumph racers became thin on the ground, and  the Hadfield's  (a racing family if there ever was, Mr., Mrs. and Master Hadfield too) moved on.  They honoured me by asking if I'd take on the Squadron, that they had organised for years.   So for several years, I did, although it's name came to include GT6s and my Vitesse.  But after the 2008 race, when we were one of the only half-dozen classic car teams in an even bigger field of fifty-five teams at Silverstone, it became obvious that those who drove moderns were intolerant of slower cars, in a way that drivers in the Old Birkett would have declared a very bad show.    My drivers (and I) were cut up and even damaged by, I'm sad to say, incompetent race drivers - it is a non-contact sport, after all.

The Last Spitfire Squadron team, 2008.

 

 

 

After that, I couldn't get a team together, and the Spitfire Squadron went into retirement, although my Vitesse stills bears the Team Logo.

 

 

But a "pace-car" for the Squadron?   The Team was only ever entered for the Birkett, that employs a pace car for dangerously positioned break-downs and crashes, the same way as F1, but that is the race organisers' car.    And in the years before my "ownership", the teams were almost always Spitfires.   I'm sorry, but although I do have some records of the Squadron's teams, none feature the cars' registration numbers.    So please, if Jim Fullbrook will scan these documents and let me see them, I'll try to tally them up, if I can.

 

John

[Pete Lewis]

Thanks john, I will pass on your story.

 

I have not seen the documents with the car so have little to go on

the owner is likely to be at the pub on27th I will try to find out more about where he got the idea from

 

thanks pete